2012 ARRL Field Day

Post date: Jun 05, 2012 5:32:49 PM

We are combining with members of The Woodlands HRO lead by Patrick Ramsey (N5PAR) for this year's Field Day.

ARRL Field Day typically runs from around 1pm Saturday for 24 hours, and is meant to be an opportunity for us to simulate operating in worst case scenario: ie: not at our homes, without power, temporary antennas, and so on.

In order to make it 'interesting' for a portion of the groups, ARRL have created a 'contest' aspect to it such that some of the more determined contesting focussed clubs organize operation to cover the entire 24 hour period and schedule operators that are expected to function at top efficiency for their allocated time span at the controls.

Our approach is much more that of a relaxed atmosphere, with the focus being that of:

a) demonstrating to ourselves that we can operate in a temporary basis using no external power, with temporary antennas etc.

b) providing an opportunity for the general public to become more aware of the club, the hobby and how they can become involved.

To that end, we do not feel a need to operate for the entire 24 hours. In fact, we'll only be operating from 2pm till 8pm on Saturday.

We have permission / reservation to use the two Northshore Park (In The Woodlands) Pavillions from 2pm until 8pm on June 23rd.

We hope that by being located at Northshore Park, that we'll get more interest from the general public that happens to be at the park.

As it happens, there is a The Woodlands Township run emergency preparedness event in the morning (same day), and at that event, we'll be able to encourage people to visit the Field Day location.

By all means, chip in as you can with helping with the Field Day.

We will have lots to do regarding setup and packup, and hopefully, we'll need people to be available for answering questions from the general public, and operators to run the stations.

If you can help with this, please go to the discussion group and let us know how you can help.

All the best,

Peter Belbin KE5STL